Came across this video and thought it very interesting the way he breaks down all the different levels of reharmonization.I'm sure Ted would have a few words to say about this.Although level 6 seems more doable for keyboard players than guitarists, and level 7 is in the digital realm, not for gigging musicians.What do you guys think of this?

I think Ted might have said that the seventh level is actually a bit like what we guitarists actually do when we adjust the tuning of chords with our fingers, E.G. making certain notes slightly sharp or flat by pulling the string along it's length. So hey, we don't need computer digital, we already have our fingers (digits)...we've always been digital!

Wow, you can intone your chords as you go and leave the soprano in tempered pitch? I'd like to hear that!I think this level 7 involves more than just bending a few single notes....or maybe I don't understand it. __________________--Paul

Originally Posted by PaulVWow, you can intone your chords as you go and leave the soprano in tempered pitch? I'd like to hear that!I think this level 7 involves more than just bending a few single notes....or maybe I don't understand it.

Notice that I said "a bit like" and wasn't suggesting that we can "do his seventh level thing with our fingers". I was just noting that we can indeed adjust the tuning of our chords with finger pressure. I do this to compensate for some of the more glaring anomalies of tempered tuning within a chord itself, but also to attune a chord to whatever else is happening around me (vocals for instance).

Interesting "whirlwind tour" of harmony.I'd be most interested in Ted's take on Level 5 harmony--"non-functional harmony"--which he sometimes called "real chord substitution."I don't know that he ever systematized how to do this.

It's not as "whatever" as Adam suggests, involving first learning how to reharmonizes the passing harmonies, leaving the main harmonic "points"--the places where the given chord seems essential to the identity of the tune--intact.And there are ways to learn to do this that are not random. (No criticism of Adam here, who dos a lovely job of giving an overview).

It is more difficult to reharmonize the "points," especially if you want to preserve the identity of the tune, and it's easy to "oversubstitute." But non-functional harmony can create some of the most beautiful sounds going.

Levels 6 and 7 are not of great personal interest to me--they aren't the soundsI look for--and I don't know how Ted would think about them.Allan

I think the singer is very happy that she got to sing over level 0, the original harmony, instead of level 6!

The "levels" are basically large categories of substitution techniques that are capable of achieving a certain amount of dissonance. The degree of dissonance is compared to the kinds of peppers used in food to achieve an amount of spiciness. I don't know about you but I like spicy food to a point! Too much for me is what you might affectionately call "gringo killer." Having my mouth on fire for an hour is only interesting once in my life. In music, I can certainly appreciate highly dissonant music but it is not my go to for listening pleasure.

Within each "level" on the video there are many, many more possibilities for reharmonizing even this short passage. Most of the ideas Ted presents in Session for the Stars would fit in the lower "levels." That doesn't mean that he wasn't sophisticated. It means that he found a ton to explore and teach in these lower "levels," much more than simple tritone subs and chord extensions.

Also, arguably level 7, using intonation outside of equal temperament, is substantially less dissonant than levels 5 and 6, so it is circling around back to level 0.

I appreciate that the creator of this video has done a lot of listening and thinking. He kindly shares that with us. A short video like this can really only be just a toe dip in the enormous waters of substitution/reharmonization.

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